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The No Call

The Problem: The Celtics complaining about “not getting calls” is like irony fucking deceit and having a truth baby. It’s like Peter Rosenberg calling out Nicki Minaj for not being “real hip-hop” or Dr. Phil writing a weight loss book. It’s a painfully accurate assessment from a laughably ridiculous source but, sometimes, even hypocrites are right. In overtime of Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals, Rajon Rondo had his face scraped off by Dwyane Wade while finishing a reverse layup (see above). There was no whistle, a fast-break led to a Miami bucket, and the four point swing potentially cost Boston a game. Inexcusable.

What Needs To Be Recognized: Many fouls occur four feet above the hair gel-soaked head of a referee. The players are fast, most fouls are judgment calls, and human error is part of basketball. That said, the action of a game is concentrated on half of the court at a time. Between three refs, each is responsible for a small bedroom's worth of square footage. That's it. If the NBA expects to be taken seriously, it can't miss calls this badly.